BlackBerry Is About To Lay Off 4,500 People

Euan Rocha

AP

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(Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd warned on Friday that it expects to report a huge second-quarter operating loss next week and that it plans to cut more than a third of its workforce.

The company, which has struggled to claw back market share from the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy phones, said it expects to report a net operating loss of about $950 million to $995 million in the quarter ended August 31, due to writedowns and other factors.

It said it will cut about 4,500 employees.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it expects that its adjusted net loss, before giving effect to the inventory and restructuring provisions, will be in a range of about $250 million to $265 million, or a loss of 47 cents to 51 cents per share.

BlackBerry said it expects to report revenue for the second quarter of about $1.6 billion, of which roughly 50 percent is expected to be revenue from its services unit.

Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 15 cents a share on revenue of $3.06 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said it plans to refocus its efforts on the enterprise and high-end consumer markets, offering end-to-end solutions, including hardware, software and services.